Judge orders Bush administration to decide Ramadan visa

June 28, 2006|Tribune Staff Report

A federal judge in New York has ordered the Bush administration to decide by September whether to approve an entry visa for Tariq Ramadan, a European Muslim scholar who had planned to join the University of Notre Dame faculty in 2004.

Just before Ramadan was scheduled to arrive in South Bend in 2004, the government revoked his work visa without explanation. The government encouraged him to apply again, but delays resulted in Ramadan eventually resigning the tenured position at Notre Dame.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in January in federal court in New York, challenging a provision of the USA Patriot Act that a Department of Homeland Security official had initially used to justify the visa revocation.

In an ordered released June 23, Judge Paul A. Crotty, of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, wrote that if the government has a legitimate reason for excluding Ramadan, it may do so, but only by acting on the current visa application.